Community Partnership School - Alumni Support

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City:

Philadelphia

State:

Pennsylvania

Organization Overview

Community Partnership School (CPS), a Pre-K through fifth grade independent elementary school in North Central Philadelphia, is committed to educating the “whole child” and making quality education accessible, in particular, for children from low-income households. Currently located in a building owned by Project HOME, a partner that helped launch the school 12 years ago, CPS has procured a 70,000 square foot abandoned building in the Brewerytown neighborhood and will relocate to that rehabilitated space during the current academic year. While the school will remain in the same North Central zip code of 19121, Brewerytown is a rapidly gentrifying community that has absorbed, often with great tension, a number of demographic changes over the past few years. The outcome of this move will be a permanent, high quality, still independent school, primarily for low-income children, that delivers on society’s pledge to make opportunity accessible for all.

Project Name

Building a Better Alumni Support Program

Project Type:

Program Evaluation, Program Development

Project Overview

After opening in 2006, CPS’ first cohort of graduates completed fifth grade in 2011. At that time, the decision was made to provide ongoing support to graduates and their families through high school. With most of the school’s resources set aside for the PreK through fifth grade portion of the program, CPS will undertake an audit of our current and previous years’ alumni programming in order to assess what has and has not worked, and determine what resources, staffing, and programming we should implement to meet the needs of our growing alumni population.

In close collaboration with CPS’ graduate support team, the Fels student will:

Perform an alumni program audit, specifically in regard to what CPS has done and does now, what’s worked, what hasn’t, and why

Survey current alums, students, and parents/guardians, to further assess needs, specifically in regard to what alums want (e.g. after school/weekend jobs, academic tutoring, etc) and what they envision for ongoing engagement

Uncover recent scholarship on adolescent development well-being, academic achievement, and the role of parents/mentors, particularly for kids of color and kids of color from low-income households/communities